







ISTORICAL ADDRESS 

AT THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY 
OF THE MAINE COMMANDERY OF 
THE MILITARY ORDER OF THE 
LOYAL LEGION OF THE UNITED STATES 




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MILITARY ORDER OF THE LOYAL LEGION 
OF THE UNITED STATES 



HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

AT THE 

FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 

MAINE COMMANDERY 

DECEMBER 7, 1916 



BY 

Brevet Major Henry S. Burrage 



PORTLAND, MAINE 

FRED. L. TOWER COMPANY 

1917 



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Let the American people — and especially let all who stood by 
Lincoln on the perilous edge of battle in support of the rights of 
human nature — remain steadfastly true to the ideas and the 
thoughts for which they fought in the great war, and we shall 
then do all that in us lies to link the destiny of our country to 
the stars and to entitle her institutions to share in that immortality 
which, under the allotment of Providence in the afiairs of nations, 
belongs only to eternal justice in the dealings of man with his 
fellowman. President Hayes in his address at the tzventy-fifth 
anniversary of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the 
United States. 



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HISTORICAL ADDRESS 

WE halt for a backward look tonight. Great memories are 
ours as we gather around the campfire at the close of half 
a century of our history. One of these memories carries us back 
to that saddest of all sad days in the War of the Rebellion, when 
the whole country, South as well as North, was bowed in grief 
because of the tidings of the death of President Lincoln, April 
15, 1865. For a week nearly, we had been uplifted, exalted, by a 
great joy — a greater joy I am sure than ever before had so com- 
pletely filled and thrilled our hearts. At last, the final victory was 
ours. How we had longed to see even the dawn of peace; and 
now, when the light of a glorious day was shining upon us in more 
than midday brightness and splendor, suddenly, unexpectedly, 
the heart-rending message reached us that our Chief Magistrate, 
the wise, patient, faithful President, who with whole-hearted de- 
votion had guided the nation skillfully and safely in a great crisis 
of our history, had been ruthlessly and wickedly assassinated. 

On that day of mourning, three officers, who had served in the 
Union army during the war — Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Elwood 
Zell, Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Samuel Brown Wylie Mitchell 
and Captain Peter Dirck Keyser — met in Colonel Zell's office in 
Philadelphia; and while conferring together concerning the 
thoughts in all hearts and upon all lips, the suggestion was borne 
in upon" them, somehow and in some way, of an organization of 
the officers of the army and navy, similar to the Society of the 
Cincinnati of the Revolution, an organization that would per- 
petuate the companionships and experiences of the War of the 
Rebellion. Other officers soon became interested in the move- 
ment, and at a larger meeting held on April 20, 1865, (although 
April 15th was still regarded as the birthday of the Order,) 



measures were instituted, which, in Independence Hall, hallowed 
by historic memories, were brought to consummation on May 31, 

1865, by the organization of the Military Order of the Loyal 
Legion of the United States. 

Major General George Cadwalader, of Philadelphia, was 
elected Commander of the Pennsylvania Commandery November 
8, 1865, and Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Samuel B. Wylie Mitchell, 
who had been Secretary of the preliminary meetings, was made 
Recorder. 

Such an organization, designed to perpetuate the friendships of 
the war, and to keep alive the great memories connected with it, 
did not escape the notice of Major General Joshua L. Chamber- 
lain of our own State. Very early, as we might expect, he was in 
touch with those who had connected themselves with it ; and on 
November 1, 1865, therefore only a few days before the Com- 
mandery of the State of Pennsylvania was instituted, he became a 
member of the preliminary organization, his insignia bearing the 
number 62. His welcome in establishing his connection with the 
Pennsylvania Commandery was so cordial that when that Com- 
mandery, on February 22, 1866, celebrated the day by a com- 
memorative service in the Academy of Music — the first meeting 
of the Pennsylvania Commandery on any historic occasion — 
General Chamberlain was made the orator of the day, the earliest, 
or at least one of the earliest, of his distinguished patriotic serv- 
ices in many places and on many occasions in a long and useful 
life. 

Already the Order was extending its bounds. On January 17, 

1866, a charter was granted for a Commandery in the State of 
New York. To General Chamberlain that charter evidently was 
something more than a suggestion. His ardent nature, quick- 
ened by patriotic impulses, made it the awakening of enthusiastic 
endeavor, with the added inspiration of a vision he had caught of 
the meaning of such an organization to the State of Maine ; and 
on April 25, 1866, thirteen other Maine officers were elected 
members of the Order through the Pennsylvania Commandery. 
Their purpose in thus seeking membership was at once dis- 
closed, for on the same day the Commandery of the State of 

4 



Pennsylvania, acting as the Commandery-in-Chief, granted 
authority for the organization of a Commandery in the State of 
Maine to Brevet Major General Joshua L. Chamberlain, Major 
General Francis Fessenden, Brevet Major General Charles M. 
Smith, Brevet Major General John C. Caldwell. Brevet Major 
General George F. Shepley, Brigadier General Henry G. Thomas, 
Brevet Brigadier General Harris M. Plaisted, Brevet Brigadier 
General Charles Hamlin, Brevet Brigadier General Jonathan P. 
Cilley, Brevet Brigadier General Thomas W. Hyde, Brevet Briga- 
dier General John M. Brown, Brevet Colonel Charles B. Merrill, 
Colonel George Varney and Colonel John F. Appleton. What 
names are these, recalling merely in their mention distinguished 
services on so many of the great battlefields of the Rebellion ! Of 
the fourteen names there is only one against which on our roll the 
fatal asterisk has not already been placed. To General Cilley, 
the last living representative of our charter members, happily 
with us this evening, we extend hearty greetings and congratu- 
lations. 

Following this action in Philadelphia, the summer months of 
1866 soon passed, and on September 29th, at the call of General 
Chamberlain, a number of the officers mentioned in the charter 
assembled in Portland, probably at the Preble House. It was 
not the Portland of other days, for the great fire of July 4th had 
made desolate the larger part of the business portion of Long- 
fellow's beautiful town by the sea ; but the new Portland was al- 
ready rising from the ruins the fire had left, even as the nation 
was rising in greater grandeur following the desolations of war. 
At that first meeting of the Maine Commandery, General Cham- 
berlain was elected Commander. General Fessenden, Senior Vice 
Commander, General Charles W. Roberts, Junior Vice Com- 
mander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles B. Merrill, Recorder, Gen- 
eral Charles Hamlin, Correspondent (an office that was soon 
discontinued in the Order), General John Marshall Brown, Chan- 
cellor, and General Thomas W. Hyde, Treasurer. 

At the meeting of the Commandery, February 9, 1867, additions 
were made to its membership, bringing such encouragement 
as comes to an army on the arrival of desirable reinforcements. 



the list including Brigadier General Selden Connor, Paymaster 
William H. Anderson, Colonel Franklin M. Drew, Colonel Charles 
P. Mattocks, Colonel Seth C. Gordon, and General Thomas H. 
Hubbard. At this meeting, also, there were proposed for mem- 
bership Major Sidney W. Thaxter, by General Hyde, and Major 
Abner O. Shaw, by General Chamberlain, recalling Dr. Shaw's 
faithful services when the General was in great need of just such 
services. 

For four successive years, commencing in 186G, General Cham- 
berlain, by large majorities, was elected Governor of Maine. 
Doubtless his memory of the Pennsylvania Commandery's cele- 
bration in Philadelphia, on Washington's birthday in 1866, 
prompted the suggestion of a meeting held by the Maine Com- 
mandery in Augusta in connection with the celebration of the 
birthday of Washington in 1868. At this meeting on the even- 
ing of February 21st, Brevet Brigadier General Charles W. 
Tilden, and our present Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Joseph 
W. Spaulding, were elected members of the Order, while Briga- 
dier General George L. Beal and Colonel William Wirt Virgin, 
were proposed for membership. On the 22nd, in honor of the 
day, the Commandery held a public meeting in the evening in 
Granite Hall. The members of the Legislature with their ladies, 
citizens of Augusta and of many places in Maine with their ladies, 
crowded the hall. The Governor as Commander, and the other 
members of the Commandery, were seated on the platform in full 
uniform. Brevet Brigadier General John Marshall Brown de- 
livered the address, presenting as a theme worthy of the occasion 
a consideration of the means of maintaining a military establish- 
ment in time of peace — a theme demanding attention at the 
present time with even more urgency than at the first of our 
Commandery's public assemblies. Existing deficiencies were 
enumerated, and needed reforms were suggested. The speaker's 
insistence upon the right of a State to the military service of its 
able bodied citizens in times of emergency, and without regard 
to wealth or standing, emphasized the obligations of citizenship 
in terms with which we have been made familiar in these later 
days, with nearly all Europe in arms, and war clouds hanging 



heavily over our Mexican border. General Horace Binney Sar- 
gent of Massachusetts followed with a poem on "The Returning 
of the Standards," which, like the address, received merited 
praise. A banquet at the Augusta House brought to an end a day 
of great interest and enjoyment. 

Evidently it was expected that such a meeting, at the capital 
of the State, would be helpful to the growth and general pros- 
perity of the Loyal Legion in Maine. The hopes of the members 
of the Commandery, however, were not confirmed. In fact, in 
1869, only one meeting seems to have been held, namely on March 
16th, when General Chamberlain, General Sargent and General 
Shepley were appointed to represent the Commandery in the first 
Congress of the Order, held in Philadelphia on April 9th. Other 
meetings may have followed, but in the minutes of the Com- 
mandery there is no added record until November 8, 1873. At a 
meeting held December 28, 1874, an order directed that "all books, 
papers, blanks, seals, &c., required by the constitution," should be 
procured "at the earliest possible moment". Apparently there 
was need of haste, inasmuch as the only records of the Com- 
mandery that have come down to us from this period are upon 
sheets of paper affixed to the first volume of minutes by Recorder 
Rand. Following this discovery of conditions, and the record of 
the action then taken, nothing seems to have been done. There 
is no record of any meetings. A single document from the 
archives of the Commandery of the State of Massachusetts, dated 
Portland, Maine, December 1, 1876, affords the only record in 
this moribund period of our history. It is addressed to the Re- 
corder of the Massachusetts Commandery, and is a request from 
Companions Chamberlain, Fessenden (J. D.), Brown, Shepley, 
Beal, Robie, Fessenden (Francis), Donnell, Jose and Sargent, 
that temporarily at least they may be received into that Com- 
mandery without relinquishing their rights in the Maine Com- 
mandery. The request is in the handwriting of Lieutenant and 
Adjutant Edward M. Rand, who had become a member of the 
Order through the Commandery of the State of Massachusetts, 
May 3, 1876. Certainly there can be no doubt that connection 
with the flourishing Massachusetts Commandery, by the members 



of our own organization during this period, was very helpful to 
Maine Loyal Legion interests. The goodly fellowship they 
found at its meetings emphasized the value of membership in the 
Order, and their experiences, continued through a number of 
years, were sufficient to awaken among the Companions residing 
in Maine a desire, which early in 1881 became a determination, 
to renew their allegiance to the Maine Commandery. In accord- 
ance with this determination an application for transfer was made. 
This was granted, the Massachusetts Commandery placing upon 
its records the following: "Proud as this Commandery has ever 
been of the names which by transfer from Maine have graced its 
Register, if the good of the Order is thereby promoted, they will 
now be willingly surrendered. The record, however, must al- 
ways stand that once they belonged to us." 

In accordance with a call from General Chamberlain, a meeting 
of the Maine Commandery was held in Portland, October 28, 
1881. We have no report of the words with which so ardent a 
member of the Order greeted the return of his fellow exiles ; but 
we who have heard his voice at so many of our meetings in the 
intervening years can easily imagine the earnestness and the 
seriousness with which he exalted the value of such companion- 
ship and the ends which it is designed to secure. 

At this meeting, General Francis Fessenden was elected Com- 
mander, and General John Marshall Brown was made Recorder. 
Both had greatly distinguished themselves in their war service, 
and were ready for added service in the interests of the Maine 
Commandery. Past delinquencies in the case of any were over- 
looked. All annuaUdues prior to 1881 were remitted. Members 
who had not paid the initiation fee were allowed six months in 
which to complete their membership. If in that time old scores 
were not wiped out, such companionship was to be declared null 
and void. 

Evidently General Brown's election as Recorder was regarded 
as temporary only; for at the meeting of the Commandery on 
March 4, 1882, General Brown presented his resignation as Re- 
corder and was elected Chancellor. Four days later, at an ad- 
journed meeting of the Commandery, the transfer of First 



Lieutenant and Adjutant Edward M. Rand from the Commandery 
of the State of Massachusetts was received, and his election as 
Recorder at once followed. To this position Adjutant Rand 
brought not only high ideals with reference to the duties of his 
office, but personal qualifications of the highest order, all of which, 
with rare skill and devotion, he employed untiringly in conducting 
according to the most approved business methods the affairs 
placed in his hands. His zeal and efficiency in advancing the in- 
terests of the Order, both here in Maine and in his connection 
with other Commanderies and the Commandery-in-Chief, were 
widely recognized. Our Companions of the Maine Commandery 
caught the breath of a new era, and animated by it aided in pro- 
moting a most auspicious undertaking. 

We should greatly err, however, if with this evidence of a re- 
vival of interest in the affairs of thet Maine Commandery we 
should think of the meetings as in any way large and well sus- 
tained. For some time the number in attendance continued to be 
small. Recorder Rand began his record of the meeting of March 
8, 1882, with the remark, "Fifteen present." This was probably 
the largest number of Companions present at any meeting of the 
Commandery thus far, not excepting the meeting held in Augusta 
in 1868. At the April meeting, only eight were present, and this 
number was not much increased until May, 1883, when nineteen 
were present. At the May meeting in 1884, twenty Companions 
appeared. At this meeting, General Connor was elected Com- 
mander. At the meeting in May, 1885, twenty-six Companions 
were present. Thus far this was high-watdr mark. But the 
future had been made secure. The zeal and energy of Recorder 
Rand, with the strong support of the other officers, and a growing 
membership interested in the objects and aims of the Order, had 
now obtained for the Commandery the honorable place it has since 
held among our military organizations in Maine. 

Until this time, the meetings of the Commandery had been 
largely of a business and social character ; and when such matters 
as required the attention of the members had been duly consid- 
ered, how brightly the campfire was made to burn ! It's warmth 
was quickening. Old experiences were recalled, and many a 



good story of camp and campaign was told as memory kindled 
thought, and thought found expression in words. But they were 
unrecorded words. Might they not be written and preserved? 
The question was deemed worthy of consideration, and in the 
early part of 1884, an inquiry concerning the number and char- 
acter of the meetings of the Commandery was referred to. a com- 
mittee, which at the April meeting recommended that, instead of 
monthly meetings for nine months in the year as hitherto, stated 
meetings should be held on the first Wednesday in May, Septem- 
ber, December and March; that at each meeting a Companion 
should be appointed to present at the following meeting a paper 
on some topic connected with the War of the Rebellion; also, 
that at each stated meeting there should be provided, at the ex- 
pense of the Commandery, such a collation, as in the judgment of 
the Chancellor and the Recorder the state of the treasury seemed 
to warrant. The recommendation was adopted, and in general 
the several features of this report have characterized very largely 
the meetings of the Maine Commandery until the present time. 
Who of us, Companions, can now fail to recognize the importance 
of that action? And yet, with the beginning of the new arrange- 
ment, the War Paper feature seemed doomed to failure. Ap- 
pointments for such a paper were made, but for the most part the 
Companions appointed failed to respond. In fact, at the Sep- 
tember meeting in 1885, after several failures, and when only one 
paper had been read, the committee on entertainments recom- 
mended "that the character of the entertainments be wholly of a 
social kind." The language of the recommendation was certainly 
sufificiently plain, but the committee, evidently for the purpose of 
emphasis, added, "and that the literary features of the entertain- 
ment be dispensed with in all cases, unless some Companion may 
voluntarily offer to read a paper upon some matter of personal 
experience in the army during the War of the Rebellion." Of 
course, the recommendation having been adopted by the Com- 
mandery, it was not to be expected that any Companion would 
present himself as a volunteer; and the records of the Command- 
ery show that between September 2, 1885, and December 7, 1887, 
— a period of more than two years — no War Papers were read at 



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the Commandery's meetings. Because of this failure, however, 
increasing dissatisfaction found expression from time to time, and 
at the last meeting of the Commandery in 1887, the committee on 
entertainment was instructed to arrange for "a return to the read- 
ing of a War Paper at each stated meeting;" and the same Com- 
panion who read the first paper read again on March 7, 1888, 
thus closing an interregnum of three and one-half years. From 
that early time, the Commandery has rarely held a stated meeting 
at which the interesting feature of the meeting has not been the 
reading of some personal narrative connected with the War of 
the Rebellion. 

In this connection, reference very properly may be made to our 
four stately volumes of War Papers, which have appeared from 
time to time since the publication of the first volume was author- 
ized by the Commandery, September 6, 1893. Who now, as he 
turns to these volumes, can fail to have before him, as he reads, 
the Companion who is telling the story — Chamberlain, Hyde, 
Hamlin, Anderson, Thaxter, Mattocks, Melcher, Hunt, Sewall, 
Green, Ford, Rowell, nd others who are no more with us around 
the campfire! What a host of good story tellers the Com- 
mandery has had, and happily still has. While these papers are 
the narrations of personal experiences connected with prominent 
periods and events of the Civil War, the literary character of the 
volumes has often been praised. Not all the papers read at the 
stated meetings of the Commandery, however, appear in these four 
volumes. Colonel A. C. Hamlin, of Bangor, read to us several 
papers on matters connected with Jackson's flank attack upon the 
Eleventh Corps at Chancellorsville, papers which afterward were 
brought together in a volume and published under the title "Battle 
of Chancellorsville. Jackson's Attack." Of General Hyde's ex- 
ceedingly interesting papers, only one appears in our collection, 
the others being included in his charming volume entitled, "Fol- 
lowing the Greek Cross." Captain Charles A. Boutelle. at the 
annual meeting in 1895, gave us a most delightful account of his 
experiences in the navy during the War of the Rebellion ; but as 
he brought with him no manuscript, and the Commandery has no 
stenographer, only the memory of his very entertaining story re- 

II 



mains. From General Tilden we were never able to get a written 
account of his escape from the Libby Prison by tunnel. At one 
of our meetings, however, when the appointed reader of the paper 
was unable to be present, General Tilden was persuaded to tell 
that rem.arkable experience. Surely none of us at that meeting 
has forgotten the charm of the narration. Our pleas, that he 
should tell to his stenographer what he had told to us, were un- 
availing — a loss greatly regretted. We still have in hand excel- 
lent material toward a fifth volume. Some of us may not see 
that volume, but its publication can safely be left to our younger 
Companions in succession and by inheritance. 

Mention should also be made of the way in which the war 
library of the Commandery became a prized possession. At the 
meeting in 1884, in which the reading of War Papers was 
directed, five Companions were made a committee for procuring, 
without expense to the Commandery, Maine regimental histories 
and other books having reference to the War of the Rebellion. 
Valuable gifts in this way came into the Commandery 's posses- 
sion as the years passed. At the meeting of the Commandery 
March 7, 1888, an appropriation of twenty-five dollars was made 
for the purchase of books relating to the war, and the same 
amount for the binding of valuable unbound books and pam- 
phlets. At subsequent meetings, other and much larger ap- 
propriations were made. At the meeting at which the first 
appropriations were made, a committee was appointed to ascer- 
tain what arrangements could be made with the Maine Historical 
Society for the care of this rapidly growing collection. The 
Maine Historical Society, then occupying a part of the building 
in which the Public Library of Portland has its home, offered a 
favorable location for our books ; and when the Society removed 
to its new building on the Longfellow property, another arrange- 
ment was made, in accordance with which the now large and 
valuable library of the Commandery was given to the Maine 
Historical Society on the condition that the Loyal Legion war 
books and those of the Society should be kept together, and that 
the members of the Commandery should have access to them with 
the same rights and privileges as if they were the property of the 

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Commandery. This arrangement, Companions Rand and Virgin 
attending to the legal details, secured the care and preservation of 
this valuable collection upon most favorable conditions. The 
catalogue of the collection, printed in 1910, covers fifty-two pages, 
and the collection continues to receive valuable additions. In our 
War Papers, and in this large number of books and pamphlets 
relating to the War of the Rebellion, the Maine Commandery has 
reared for itself an enduring memorial. 

At the annual meeting of the Commandery, May 1, 1889, Re- 
corder Rand declined a re-election. The announcement was re- 
ceived with profound regret, and the Commandery yielded to the 
Recorder's expressed purpose only when it was ascertained that 
the decision was irrevocable. Regret for the great loss the Com- 
mandery had sustained by this declination was voiced by General 
Francis Fessenden in these appropriate words : "The Command- 
ery of the State of Maine is under enduring obligations to Com- 
panion Rand, while Recorder, for constant devotion to the highest 
interests of this Commandery and our Order, for his unremitting 
zeal and arduous labors in securing their welfare and advance- 
ment, and for the extraordinary faithfulness, method and exact- 
ness of his official labors." These appreciative words received 
unanimous endorsement, the members of the Commandery rising 
as an expression of grateful acknowledgment. The one hundred 
and seventy-five pages of our records, as faultless in penmanship 
as they are accurate in every detail, carefully, even painstakingly 
preserving to us, and those who shall follow us, our business 
transactions during the seven years of the Recorder's service, 
are an enduring testimonial to the thoroughness and faithfulness 
that characterized Companion Rand's labors in that important 
period in the Commandery's history. We regret that he cannot 
be with us tonight and receive in person our recognition of his 
loyal services. Our words of affectionate greeting have already 
reached him in his sick chamber, and we may be sure that he is 
with us in spirit. 

As the successor of Companion Rand, I should fail in duty 
were I not to add that his services in the interest of this Com- 
mandery did not end with his retirement from office. In the 

13 



whole period of my Recorder ship, extending over nearly a 
quarter of a century to the time when, in the summer of 1912, I 
was succeeded by our present Recorder, First Lieutenant Horatio 
Staples, I had occasion to know how constant and helpful Com- 
panion Rand was to me in many ways, until failing health com- 
pelled him to withdraw from a service that he loved, and in which 
he found that inward joy that follows such faithful service as its 
own great reward. 

All the while, year by year, the Commandery continued to in- 
crease in numbers and in influence. Our meetings were more 
largely attended. From various parts of the State, officers, who 
had made for themselves an honorable record in the Union 
armies, or in our naval service during the Civil War, were elected 
members of the Order through the Commandery. Also, because 
of the provision in our Constitution for the admission of the 
eldest son of a Companion, later extended to all sons, together 
with the provision for the election of Companions in succession 
or by inheritance, there was an increase in our ranks. Our first 
Succession Companion, Charles H. True, was admitted to mem- 
bership December 1, 1886. Our first eldest son, John Sedgwick 
Hyde, was made a member of the Order December 5, 1888. 
Other sons, and Companions in succession and by inheritance, 
were added to our ranks from time to time ; and with accessions 
from these various sources, the Commandery continued its work 
with added interest and activity. 

The meeting of the Commandery-in-Chief of our Order, held 
in Portland, October 1, 1892, at our invitation, afforded evidence 
of the increasing strength and wider recognition which the Maine 
Commandery had now secured. At no earlier period of our his- 
tory would the Commandery have ventured to extend such an 
invitation. What honored guests were ours by its acceptance — 
Lieutenant General J. M. Schofield, then our Commander-in- 
Chief, whom some of us had known in Tennessee, when he was 
in command of the Army of the Ohio ; Major General O. O. 
Howard, whom Sherman at Atlanta placed in command of the 
Army of the Tennessee, holding in the Civil War the highest 
army command of any son of Maine; General Alexander S. 

14 



Webb, a distinguished son of New York, in the forefront at 
Gettysburg and on many Virginia battlefields ; our Recorder-in- 
Chief, Colonel John P. Nicholson, soldier and patriot, chairman 
of the Gettysburg Battlefield Commission, and the most beloved, 
I might add, of all the Companions in our twenty-one Com- 
manderies of the Loyal Legion. But why mention names of a 
host, heroes all, though bearing less familiar names, eager to 
grasp the hand of Chamberlain, Connor, Fessenden, Varney, 
Brown, Hamlin, Farnham, Tilden, Mattocks, Gordon, Drew, 
Thaxter, Melcher, indeed the whole membership of the Com- 
mandery of the State of Maine. 

The business of the Commandery-in-Chief was followed in the 
evening by a banquet in this hall, the large dining hall of the Fal- 
mouth Hotel. General Mattocks was toastmaster, and welcomed 
the honored guests. General Schofield responded for the Com- 
mandery-in-Chief, making genial, soldierly acknowledgment of 
the hospitality he and his associates had received, and charac- 
terizing Maine as a center of patriotism, and her sons as dis- 
tinguished for their loyalty and sturdy manhood. The other 
speakers were General Chamberlain, responding for the Governor 
of Maine, Mayor Boothby of Portland, General Howard, General 
Webb, General King, Rear Admiral Coghlan, Judge Putnam, 
General Connor, Colonel Nicholson, Judge Ballard of the Ver- 
mont Commandery and Colonel Thomas L. Livermore of the 
Massachusetts Commandery. After the lapse of the interven- 
ing years, as we thus recall the speakers of that memorable camp- 
fire, how profoundly we are still stirred as we catch only the 
echoes of words of lofty patriotism and undying devotion to duty ! 

On the following day, the guests who still remained in Port- 
land were escorted by members of the Commandery to Cape 
Cottage for a view of old ocean. Then, they were taken to Riv- 
erton, where lunch was served and enjoyed. On the evening 
before, at the banquet. Rear Admiral Coghlan had declined an 
urgent request for a recitation of "Hoch der Kaiser" — a recita- 
tion which not long before, at another banquet, had brought upon 
the Admiral a formal rebuke and word of caution from the Navy 
Department. At Riverton, after the lunch, the Admiral was 

15 



again importuned. In the comparative privacy of the hour he 
relented, and by his inimitable recitation he made the close of 
that social hour at Riverton a memorable one to the Companions 
who were so fortunate as to be present. 

At the meeting of the Commandery December 5, 1905, in an 
exceedingly interesting paper, one of our Companions, Acting 
Master John O. Johnson, called our attention to an incident of 
which the hero was a Maine bluejacket of the United States Navy, 
William Conway of Camden. In January, 1861, he was on duty 
at the Pensacola Navy Yard. Officers of the United States Navy, 
traitorously surrendering the Yard to a party of Florida seces- 
sionists, ordered Conway to haul down the United States flag. 
"I will not do it," said Conway. "This is the flag of my country, 
under which I have served for many years. I love it, and will 
not dishonor it by hauling it down now." How our hearts burned 
within us as we listened to this story of sturdy patriotism and 
fidelity ! The Commandery was moved to propose to the people 
of Camden that if they would provide a suitable boulder for a 
memorial, suitably located, we would place on it a tablet in bronze, 
commemorative of Conway's unswerving loyalty. The town 
promptly and favorably responded. A hvige boulder was selected 
and hauled to the High School yard, and upon it we affixed our 
tablet. 

The main facts connected with the unveiling of the memorial on 
August 27, 1906, you can easily recall — the coming to Camden 
of seven battleships and five destroyers of the United States 
Navy, and their appearance as they lay at anchor ofif the town — 
the landing of nearly a thousand sailors in order that they might 
have a part in honoring the memory of Conway — the presence of 
Rear Admiral Robley Evans and Rear Admiral Davis, with the 
Captains and other officers of the fleet — the crowds that had as- 
sembled from Camden and all the surrounding towns — the im- 
pressive words of General Chamberlain as he told the story of 
Conway's loyalty — and last of all, when the announcement of 
the unveiling was made by a signal from a nearby church-tower, 
the roar of the guns of the fleet, as over the waters of the bay 
they thundered out a national salute of twenty-one guns in Con- 

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way's honor — an honor, said Admiral Evans, that no bluejacket 
ever received before. Is not our sailor memorial a worthy one, 
and may we not lovingly think of it as telling in the schoolyard 
at Camden its lesson of patriotism and fidelity to generations for 
a long time yet to come ? 

Another memorial, also of a Maine man, we have placed on 
Paris Hill. March 3, 1909, General Chamberlain, by request of 
the Commandery, read to us the paper he had read in Philadelphia 
February 12, 1909, before the Commandery of the State of Penn- 
sylvania on the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Abra- 
ham Lincoln. The paper made a profound impression upon all 
present, and at its close one of the members of the Commandery 
called attention to the fact that on August 27, 1909, would occur 
the one hundredth anniversary of the birth of Hannibal Hamlin, 
Vice President of the United States when Lincoln was President. 
It was also remarked that Mr. Hamlin was a Companion of our 
Order, elected by the Pennsylvania Commandery under that pro- 
vision of the Constitution of the Order that makes eligible gentle- 
men in civil life who, during the Rebellion, "were especially 
distinguished for conspicuous and consistent loyalty to the national 
government and were active and eminent in maintaining the su- 
premacy of the same." This reference to Mr. Hamlin Was fol- 
lowed by a vote of the Commandery requesting General Connor 
to prepare a paper on the life and services of Mr. Hamlin, to be 
read at the annual meeting of the Commandery May 5, 1909. 
Certainly, no other member of the Commandery was so well 
qualified by association and otherwise to bring before us the long 
and honorable services of Mr. Hamlin, our most prominent rep- 
resentative in the great conflict between union and disunion, free- 
dom and slavery. How vividly and eloquently the public career 
of Mr. Hamlin was presented to us, fittingly handing on his name 
and fame to future generations ! The Commandery at once re- 
sponded to the impression the paper had made, and a committee 
was appointed to confer with the people of Paris, and make ar- 
rangements for the erection of a memorial and its unveiling on 
the one hundredth anniversary of Mr. Hamlin's birth. The citi- 
zens of Paris provided the boulder for the bronze tablet prepared 

17 



by the Commandery, and August 27th, the date of the Hamlin 
centennial, was made the day for the celebration. 

A cold northwest wind swept over the hill-top that morning, 
but it could not chill the hearts of men, women and children, 
moving on all the roads leading to Paris and the Hamlin birth- 
place. General Chamberlain wias the officer of the day. Those 
who participated in the centennial services in front of the village 
church were Governor Fernald, now about to follow Mr. Hamlin 
to the Senate of the United States ; John D. Long, born in nearby 
Buckfield, a former distinguished Governor of Massachusetts 
and later an efficient Secretary of the Navy ; Eugene Hale, born 
in nearby Turner, and long a conspicuous member of the Senate 
of the United States ; Charles S. Hamlin of Boston, honoring in 
high public office the Hamlin name, and representing the Hamlin 
family ; and the Reverend Doctor Henry P. Forbes, born in Paris, 
who, as the poet of the day, returning to the Hill, closed these in- 
spiring tributes to Mr. Hamlin with graceful lines entitled "Our 
Boulder." On that boulder, as on the boulder at Camden, the 
Maine Commandery has recorded, in enduring bronze, its own 
tribute commemorative of Mr. Hamlin's eminent public services. 

Is the memorial work of the Commandery done? Has a half 
century exhausted our energies? Are there no new tasks to 
which we can put our hands ? Pennsylvania has the great honor 
of having had at Gettysburg, in high command, three of her sons 
— Meade, Reynolds and Hancock. Equestrian statues, in promi- 
nent places on the battle lines, have long been the appropriate 
memorials of these distinguished soldiers of the Keystone State. 
Maine, too, had a conspicuous part in what was done at Gettys- 
burg. Major General O. O. Howard, after General Reynolds 
was killed, was in command of the whole field from about eleven 
o'clock on the first day until General Hancock, at four o'clock in 
the afternoon, appeared as the representative of General Meade ; 
and because of his services on that day, especially in selecting the 
lines on which the battle was successfully fought. General Howard 
received the thanks of Congress in the same resolution with 
which the thanks of Congress were extended to General Meade. 
Another distinguished son of this State, Major General J. L. 

i8 



Chamberlain, in command of the Twentieth Maine, held the ex- 
treme left of the Union line at Little Round Top; and the serv- 
ice which he and his regiment did there at a critical period in the 
battle, makes a brilliant page in the history of Gettysburg's peril 
and triumph. Both names — Howard and Chamberlain — have 
long been honored by names of avenues there, Howard on the 
line of the Eleventh Corps, and Chamberlain between the two 
Round Tops. Shall this be all ? 

In 1911, this Commandery appointed a committee to ask the 
Governor of Maine to appoint a Commission for the purpose 
of selecting at Gettysburg sites for suitable memorials of each 
of these distinguished soldiers. Governor Plaisted designated, 
as members of this Commission, General Chamberlain, General 
Tilden and Colonel Gordon, all members of our Order. They 
proceeded to Gettysburg and selected sites. In accordance with 
the rules governing such memorials, equestrian statues are desig- 
nated for Army and Corps Commanders, and bronze statues for 
officers in less prominent commands. The Gettysburg National 
Military Park Commission, in its report for 191G, referring to the 
visit of the Maine Commission in 1911, remarks that no action in 
Maine has been taken with reference to the sites thus selected. 

Is there to be no action? Does not the approaching session of 
the Legislature of Maine ofifer an opportunity for an appeal to the 
State with reference to these memorials? It was in connection 
with Maine regiments that Howard, as Colonel of the Third 
Maine, and Chamberlain as Lieutenant Colonel of the Twentieth 
Maine, went to the front, representing Maine, and the traditional 
loyalty of Maine. They honored their native State by distin- 
guished services at the battle of Gettysburg. Why should not 
Maine now honor herself by honoring Howard and Chamber- 
lain in the erection of appropriate memorials on that historic 
battlefield, as other States have honored their distinguished 
sons ? 

In other words, has not the time fully come when, as a Com- 
mandery, we should make an appeal to the Legislature for the 
erection of such memorials? This is a State matter, and it is 
a matter of so much importance that we may very properly, as 

19 



it seems to me, ask for such a hearing in the evening in order 
that in the presence of all the members of the Legislature, we 
may have an opportunity for presenting such considerations 
with reference to these memorials as the occasion may seem to 
demand. With such action, begun and continued, our Fiftieth 
Anniversary may fitly crown a half century of honorable and 
delightful Companionship. 



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